In Sotheby’s very own wise words; luxury week is a testament to both the rare and the exceptional.
Late November and early December is a date collectors, museologists and art enthusiast alike have kept a keen eye out for. Marking Sotheby’s very own Luxury Week, 2022 has welcomed the auction house’s most exclusive, and perhaps thrilling, sales series yet. Gathering an exceptional crowd, Luxury Week showcased the best in in Watches, Jewellery, Collector Cars, Designer Handbags, Books & Manuscripts, Natural History, Sneakers, Spirits and Wine.
The Items on Auction
It’s hard to beat a sale auctioning the largest flawless diamond on earth. Or one of the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skulls ever unveiled. Or a unique 911 Porsche Targa created the year Porsche Design was born. Or one of only 13 surviving copies of the first printing of the US Constitution. You get the gist – there was a lot of high value items on sale for luxury week.
The Porsche, for example, sold for a whooping $1,149,000 USD, a price for a 1972 one-of-a-kind vehicle in dominant black both interior-wise and outdoor. On the other hand, the skull, estimated at 15,000,000 – 20,000,000 USD, was the first time a stand-alone Tyrannosaurus rex skull got sold at an auction.
In terms of jewellery, the Van Cleef & Arpels brooch stood out as one of the auction house’s finer pieces. With “undulating calibré-cut rubies” and “tapered baguette diamonds” the brooch was sold with only minor signs of wear. Here’s what Sotheby’s had to say about it:
“Upon abdicating the throne in December 1936, the Duke of Windsor went into exile in Austria as Wallis Simpson bided her time in France, awaiting the finalization of her divorce. To ease the pain of their forced separation, the Duke wished to present his beloved with a special Christmas gift. He selected a brooch designed as overlapping holly leaves: one of mystery-set rubies, the other set entirely with diamonds. Photographs of the Duchess wearing the jewel reveal its extraordinary size and the ease with which she wore it.”
Watch enthusiasts would have been excited with the more than 50 Models of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak. Black with red numerals, more classic golds and shades of blue, these watches became one of Luxury Week’s centre pieces.
As for that diamond, which we know has peaked your curiosity – you’ll be interested to know it is part of the only 12 ever D color, Flawless or Internally Flawless diamonds ever sold at auctions since the 1990s, of which Sotheby’s has sold seven. With a weight of 101.41 carats, the lot went for 12,963,500USD.